1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of digital radio transmission and more specifically transmitting data with the use of radio repeaters.
2. Description of Related Art
Radio transmission tends to be a problem in areas, such as cities, having high rise buildings. The buildings tend to block radio transmissions and cause `shadowing`. A transmitter/receiver `transceiver` communicating with radiowave signals has to contend with these shadowing effects. This problem tends to be worse when at least one of the transceivers is a mobile unit. As the mobile unit moves into an area which experiences shadowing, the received signal is attenuated, has multipath interference, and may reduce the signal quality to a degree that the message may not be received at all.
One method of combating shadowing is to position repeaters having antennae dispersed around an area in which radio communication is desired. Antenna rental space has become increasingly more costly causing this me/hod to become increasingly unattractive. There is also an increasing demand for information transmission, worsening the problem.
Message transmission becomes very costly, slow and complex when the system is driven by a `master` controller which organizes the transceivers under its control. The control communication, between the `master` and its transceivers, not part of messages to be delivered, or `overhead`, adds to the communication traffic. The transceivers also wait idle until it is their turn to send or receive messages. As more transceivers are added, and/or the message traffic increases, the `master` becomes overloaded and becomes the limiting factor in message transmission.
Currently there is a need for a method of transmitting information which is simple, inexpensive, and does not suffer from `master` controller message transmission restrictions.